I began my querying journey at the beginning of the year after finishing the seventh draft of my YA novel, The Librarians. It’s been a long, often frustrating experience, but I’m slowly learning the ins-and-outs of the process. I’ve refined my query letter, improved how I research agents, and steeled myself against the inevitable rejections. Here’s my query letter as it now stands:

I’m seeking representation for my YA novel THE LIBRARIANS. Like you, I’m drawn to speculative fiction and I was inspired to write THE LIBRARIANS after witnessing the divisions caused by ignorance and fear in our society. The recent spate of book bannings has only made my story feel more relevant.

Generations after civilization collapsed, Serah Weston grows up in New Goshen, a walled agrarian community, where only men known as Gleaners are allowed outside to pillage and scavenge in the wilderness.
Now that she’s 16, Serah is about to enter an arranged marriage and faces a lifetime of childrearing and domestic labor. Her one solace is the simple children’s book she hides under her front porch. She longs to read it, but books are banned and Serah, like everyone in New Goshen, is illiterate.

One day Serah learns that a trader came to the city gates carrying books. She had no idea other books existed. Serah has to see and touch them, so she sneaks along on a Gleaner raid but is knocked unconscious.

Serah wakes up to find she’s traveling with a valiant, eclectic tribe of book lovers through a strange and sometimes violent world. Serah finds a new future for herself as she learns to read and shares her passion for books with scattered survivors. But the Gleaners have never let anyone escape for good. Her only hope of changing her fate is to return home and transform New Goshen from within using the power of literacy.

THE LIBRARIANS is standalone with series potential and will appeal to readers who loved Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, Traci Chee’s The Reader. and Rae Carson’s Any Sign of Life.

My speculative fiction has been published in Etched Onyx magazine, the short story collection Unforgettable (Walkabout Publishing), and a forthcoming Jelly Bucket magazine. I received a BA in Comparative Literature from Indiana University and a MA in Film from Northwestern. I’m the recipient of a Chicago-Midwest Emmy Award in Children’s Television and an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship in Screenwriting.

Thank you for your consideration.

Eric Diekhans